DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42863#0375
MARGHERITA CANTELMA’S DEATH 345
was executed from Giulio Romano’s designs in 1534,
is still preserved in a chapel of S. Andrea. These
two objects naturally absorbed the greater part of
the fortune which Isabella inherited from her dead
friend, and she was justly annoyed when her son
Ferrante wrote to beg for an advance of money,
on the strength of this large legacy. “If I did
not see,” she replied, “ that you evidently share
the popular fallacy that Signora Cantelma’s bequest
has greatly enriched me, I should be extremely
surprised at your boldness in daring to ask me
for 3000 ducats. You know that it has never
been my habit to hoard money, although certainly,
if report spoke true, I should have no difficulty in
satisfying you ! ”1 Ferrante had always been the
most extravagant of Isabella’s sons, and the most
unscrupulous in his demands upon his mother’s
purse. But, he had lately married the wealthy
heiress Isabella of Capua and had bought the prin-
cipality of Guastalla, to the south of Mantua, from
the Torelli family, so that Isabella felt justified in
resisting his importunities on this occasion.
Both her sons’ marriages, however, turned out
happily, and Isabella became fondly attached to
her daughter-in-law, Margherita Paleologa. This
gentle and virtuous princess, without possessing any
remarkable talents or making herself in any way con-
spicuous, soon won the love of her husband and sub-
jects. In the first years of her married life the young
Duchess suffered from the insolence and hatred of
Isabella Boschetti, who still retained, in a measure, her
hold upon Federico. But before long this old intrigue
ended in a tragic manner. It was reported in Mantua
1 Luzio in Nuova Antologia, 1896.
was executed from Giulio Romano’s designs in 1534,
is still preserved in a chapel of S. Andrea. These
two objects naturally absorbed the greater part of
the fortune which Isabella inherited from her dead
friend, and she was justly annoyed when her son
Ferrante wrote to beg for an advance of money,
on the strength of this large legacy. “If I did
not see,” she replied, “ that you evidently share
the popular fallacy that Signora Cantelma’s bequest
has greatly enriched me, I should be extremely
surprised at your boldness in daring to ask me
for 3000 ducats. You know that it has never
been my habit to hoard money, although certainly,
if report spoke true, I should have no difficulty in
satisfying you ! ”1 Ferrante had always been the
most extravagant of Isabella’s sons, and the most
unscrupulous in his demands upon his mother’s
purse. But, he had lately married the wealthy
heiress Isabella of Capua and had bought the prin-
cipality of Guastalla, to the south of Mantua, from
the Torelli family, so that Isabella felt justified in
resisting his importunities on this occasion.
Both her sons’ marriages, however, turned out
happily, and Isabella became fondly attached to
her daughter-in-law, Margherita Paleologa. This
gentle and virtuous princess, without possessing any
remarkable talents or making herself in any way con-
spicuous, soon won the love of her husband and sub-
jects. In the first years of her married life the young
Duchess suffered from the insolence and hatred of
Isabella Boschetti, who still retained, in a measure, her
hold upon Federico. But before long this old intrigue
ended in a tragic manner. It was reported in Mantua
1 Luzio in Nuova Antologia, 1896.